BBC Bitesize - National 5 History - Mary in England 1568-1587 - Revision 4 Mary Queen of Scots and the Reformation Mary in England 1568-1587 After Mary fled to England, she was kept imprisoned for many years. She was accused of being involved in a number of plots against Elizabeth I. She was executed in 1587. Revise 4 of 5 Mary’s involvement in Catholic plots Elizabeth’s distrust of Mary continued and a number of plots against the English Queen were uncovered. She was aware that many English Catholics wanted to depose her. Elizabeth knew that there were plots to kill her, to allow Mary to become Queen of England. Mary was implicated in a number of plans against Elizabeth. The Ridolfi plot 1571 This plot planned to depose of Elizabeth and replace her with Mary as Queen. The Duke of Norfolk was implicated and there were rumours of help from Spanish troops. Norfolk was executed. Throckmorton plot 1583 Similar to the Ridolfi plot, the Throckmorton plot planned the murder of Elizabeth and her replacement with Mary.

This plot contributed to the Act of Association of 1585 after which, Mary would be held responsible for any plot carried out in her name – whether she knew of it or not. The Parry plot 1585 In 1585, yet another plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth was uncovered. William Parry had been working as a double agent for both the English Queen and Mary, Queen of Scots. Queen Elizabeth was informed that he had planned to kill her either in a private meeting or ambushing her. There were calls for Mary, Queen of Scots, to also be brought to justice –although there was no proof of her involvement in the Parry Plot. Parry was arrested for treason and hanged at Westminster. The Babington plot 1586 A year later, an English Catholic nobleman plotted to restore the Roman Catholic religion by placing Mary on the English throne. Anthony Babington had made Mary aware of his plans to kill Elizabeth and help Mary escape. Mary replied to Babington in letters, she explained how she wanted France and Spain to help her become Queen by invading England. However, these letters were intercepted by Elizabeth’s spy, Sir Francis Walsingham.

Siobhon Redmond describes some of the plots against Elizabeth in the video below. You need to have JavaScript enabled to view this video clip. < The Elizabeth Files » Plots Against Elizabeth I Plots Against Elizabeth I Posted By claire on January 29, 2010 Sir Francis Walsingham One of Elizabeth I’s main achievements has got to be actually becoming Queen by not only rising above her illegitimacy and the scandal surrounding her mother, Anne Boleyn, but also surviving long enough to actually inherit the throne from her half-sister Mary. Elizabeth life had been in very real danger during Mary I’s reign when her name was linked with Wyatt’s Rebellion, an uprising against Mary I and an attempt to replace her with Elizabeth. However, the threat to Elizabeth’s life did not end on the day that she became Queen. There were countless plots against Elizabeth I and many of these are listed in a chapter entitled “How Many Plots Were There to Kill Elizabeth I?” in the book that I’m reading at the moment, “How Fat Was Henry VIII? And 101 Other Questions on Royal History”. Another of Elizabeth’s achievements was surviving and having a long and successful reign.

Elizabeth’s life was in constant danger after Pope Pius V issued the Bull Regnans in Excelsis of Excommunication and Deposition against Elizabeth in 1570, which was a green light for Catholics to rise against her and assassinate her. This Bull led to Elizabeth and her government passing strong laws against the Catholics even though Elizabeth had once said that she had “no desire to make windows into men’s souls”. How Many Plots Were There to Kill Elizabeth I? In December 1583, Elizabeth I wrote to the French Ambassador:- “There are more than two hundred men of all ages who, at the instigation of the Jesuits, conspire to kill me.” and she wasn’t exaggerating! In October 1583, Elizabeth I’s life was threatened by John Somerville, a Catholic from Warwickshire, who had been stirred up by the anti-Elizabeth I propaganda which the Jesuits were circulating. With the aim of seeing “her head on a pole, for she was a serpent and a viper”, Somerville set out to assassinate his Queen with a pistol. Fortunately, he was arrested, found guilty and sentenced to death before he could kill the Queen.

He committed suicide by hanging himself in his prison cell in the Tower of London before his death sentence could be carried out. Just a year later, Elizabeth I escaped death again when would-be assassin Dr William Parry, a Welsh MP who hid in the Queen’s garden at Richmond Palace, was “so daunted with the majesty of her presence in which he saw the image of her father, King Henry VIII” that he could not murder the Queen. In “How Fat Was Henry VIII?”, Raymond Lamont Brown writes of how it is not known what reason Parry had for his plot to assassinate the Queen, but he was known to William Cecil, Lord Burleigh and worked as a spy, so he claimed that he was acting as a regicide “in order to infiltrate papist circles”. However, he had been heard to boast that he would assassinate Elizabeth if he ever had the opportunity and some believed that he was acting on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots, with a papal blessing. Parry was sentenced to death and ended his life on the gallows. The Barge Incident One of the most famous attempts on Elizabeth’s life was while the Queen was travelling by barge down the River Thames.

A shot rang out and one of the Queen’s bargemen collapsed from a bullet wound which was clearly intended for the Queen. As Elizabeth passed him her handkerchief to put on his wound, She said “Be of good cheer, for you will never want. For the bullet was meant for me.” The Ridolfi Plot This plot surfaced in 1571 and it aimed to assassinate Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots who was to be married to Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. The plot takes its name from Roberto Ridolfi, a Florentine banker, who was a papal agent, a go-between for the Spanish and the Duke of Norfolk, and the man responsible for funding the rebellion which would see a Northern Catholic rebellion and an invasions by the Spanish under Philip of Spain. Unfortunately for the Catholics and for the Duke of Norfolk, Elizabeth’s secret service, headed by her spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, uncovered the plot and it collapsed. The Duke of Norfolk was executed as a traitor in 1572 and Elizabeth never trusted Mary, Queen of Scots ever again.

The Throgmorton Plot This plot, in 1583, was another attempt to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots. The plot takes its name from Francis Throgmorton, a Catholic who was involved in a number of plots against Elizabeth I. This plot involved Throgmorton acting as a go-between for Mary, Queen of Scots and her agent Thomas Morgan, and the Spanish Ambassador, Don Bernardino de Mendoza. Again, Elizabeth’s secret service got wind of the plot and arrested Throgmorton who, under torture, revealed that the Duke of Guise was planning to invade England from the Spanish Netherlands. As a result of this plot, Throgmorton was executed at Tyburn and Mendoza was thrown out of England and sent back to Spain. The Babington Plot The Babington Plot of 1586 was yet another plot which involved Mary, Queen of Scots. The plan was to assassinate Elizabeth, encourage a Catholic rising and put the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots on the English throne. This plot is named after Anthony Babington, a man who had worked in Mary, Queen of Scots’s employ as a page.

Babington set up a secret society which aimed to help and protect Jesuit infiltrators coming to England to get rid of the heretic Elizabeth I. His society also had links with Mary’s emissaries in Europe who could be called on for aid. The plot had the Pope’s blessing and although it was led by Babington it was actually thought up by John Ballard, a Jesuit priest. Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster, proved how indispensable he was by uncovering this plot and saving his Queen’s life. Ballard, the Jesuit priest, was arrested and tortured on the rack. He was then executed. Although Babington tried to save his neck by offering information to Elizabeth’s secret service and then fleeing in disguise, he was eventually arrested and was executed as a traitor in September 1586. This plot was the undoing of Mary, Queen of Scots. She had been implicated in many plots against Elizabeth in the past but this was the last straw. She was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle on the 8th February 1587 after a special court found her guilty of treason.

These are just a few of the plots that Elizabeth survived thanks to God’s protection, luck and the skill of her secret service. Elizabeth more than just survived though, unlike her half-brother and half-sister, she had a long and prosperous reign, ruling the country for over 40 years in a reign known as “The Golden Age”. Source The question regarding plots against Elizabeth I is just one of the interesting historical questions examined in “How Fat Was Henry VIII? And 101 Other Questions on Royal History” . This book also examines “Was Amy Robsart, Lady Dudley, murdered by a queen’s Command?” and “Who was the first monarch to install a flushing toilet?”, which both concern Elizabeth I. Marlowe’s 16th Century – Faust Marlowe’s 16th Century Religion and Censorship It’s not easy to be a playwright in oppressive times – and Christopher Marlowe’s 1580-90’s were times of both political and religious turmoil suppressed by the combined Church of England and the state, their being joined at the Queen. In Marlowe’s time religion was a particularly sensitive topic as the conflict between Protestants and Catholics roiled in England.

…And so it had been for decades before Marlowe was born in 1564, the result of Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic church starting about 1532. Failure to respect the constraints on free speech and expression could lead to imprisonment, as happened to Marlowe, or death, as happened to many of his colleagues. Free-thinking, opinionated writers were clearly endangered, and it was all made worse by the fact that your particular brand of Christian faith would be interpreted as your opinion about whether the Queen was an usurping bastard who should have her head cut off or not. Religious Warfare Religion in England had recently been a bit confusing, alternating between classic Roman Catholicism and a home-grown Catholicism spiced with factional radical Protestantism. The country had been Roman Catholic for nearly a thousand years until Henry VIII who reigned from 1509 until his death in 1547. The Church in England – the Anglican church – recognized the Pope in Rome as the head of the Church. The nation was Roman Catholic, and the Pope ruled everyone from the peasant to the King. Around 1533 Henry began to separate the Church of England from Rome.

Divorcing Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Protestant-leaning Anne Boleyn, future mother of Marlowe’s Queen Elizabeth was only one of the reasons for the split. Like many European heads of state, Henry simply didn’t like being told what to do by a bunch of foreigners and didn’t like seeing so much money leaving the country and into their purses in Rome. Under Henry, the Church remained Catholic for the time being, but with a new head and with a newly appointed and re-confirmed clergy. The nation was still Catholic, but it wasn’t Roman Catholic anymore. Brief Protestantism Edward VI of England was Henry VIII’s successor. His reign was brief and he died in 1553, aged only fifteen, never having actually governed as a regency council acted in his stead. Under the guidance of reformer Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had previously been Anne Boleyn’s family’s chaplain, the Church of England became more Protestant. Consequently, the people became more Protestant, too – like it or not – for those many Roman Catholics who sincerely believed that their eternal souls were tied to the nature of their worship, this was a supreme test of their devotion and their worthiness.

Bloody Mary When Queen Mary I took the throne in 1553[ 1 ] she returned the Church of England straight back to Roman Catholicism with a vengeance. Although her reign was only five years, it was time enough to burn Archbishop Cranmer and many others at the stake, and to drive about eight hundred others to exile in Europe. With Mary, then, the people became Roman Catholic again. Elizabeth and Continuity In 1558 Henry and Protestant Ann Boleyn’s daughter Elizabeth became monarch, and reigning for 44 years as Queen Elizabeth I, put the Church of England on a stable course toward a compromise middle road of non-Roman Anglican Catholicism and Protestant reformed traditions – the via media. Henry – dad – had had her mom murdered. She had suffered too. Mary had been executed and Jane Grey had been executed, and her own life expectancy wasn’t good as long as the religious strife continued.[ 2 ] Reinstating Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy in 1559, Elizabeth separated the Church of England from Rome once again, and made herself the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. This happened about 4 years before Marlowe was born.

The Via Media Since the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1559, the law now required Christians to go to church every week or be fined twelve pence. While church may sound like a punishment that only the faithful should have to bear, actual atheism was unheard of. The Church of England was designed to be inclusive in following what is termed the “via media,” a middle path that incorporated different ideas of Christianity, to become a church for everybody. Still, the Catholics thought they went too far, and the Puritans, not far enough. While the Church of England sought to consolidate religious following, seeking uniformity and harmony, factions within the Church of England pressed for their own brand of Christianity. So the “threat” to God and nation included not just Catholics who continued to resist conversion, but also dissenters within the Church of England, and the more fundamental and radical Puritan or Presbyterian side was gaining ground among the clergy. Roman Revenge The Queen’s separation from Rome didn’t please the remaining Roman Catholic states which had their own problems holding things together, and Rome, France and Spain plotted to undercut Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots who would return the nation to the Roman Catholic fold.

Rome claimed (reasonably) that Elizabeth wasn’t the legitimate Queen because she was illegitimate by birth. By Roman Catholic standards, her father, Henry VIII, had not been legally married when Elizabeth was conceived because he had not been legally divorced from his previous wife. According to Roman Catholic law and the Pope, Queen Elizabeth I was a bastard. Catholic sympathizers thought they should “remove” Elizabeth so that Mary would become Queen by right of succession, and England could return to Catholicism. If not that, then perhaps Elizabeth could be induced to marry a Catholic King who would outrank her to become King – or perhaps France or Spain could just invade England and set Mary in place.

After plotting Roman Catholic nobles in Northern England failed to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots,[ 3 ] the Roman Catholic Church Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis arrived announcing to her Catholic subjects that since Elizabeth wasn’t the legitimate queen, they didn’t have to obey her – in fact, if they did, they’d be excommunicated.[ 4 ] The response of the realm was (also very reasonably) that it then became an act of treason punishable by death to attempt to convert anybody to Roman Catholicism so as to break their allegiance to Elizabeth. During Elizabeth’s reign Rome sent hundreds of Roman Catholic priests to England ostensibly to tend to the flock, but with the efforts to depose her, the State’s compassion toward Roman Catholics (clergy particularly) soured, and many sincere and devout men and women were imprisoned and executed, becoming Catholic saints and martyrs. It is indeed a twisted form of Christianity that purifies itself by murder and assassination, but purity was essential to keeping open the line back to Jesus, and evil had to be purged.

Ridolfi Plot and Walsingham’s Secret Service Marlowe was a 6 year-old boy in Canterbury in 1570 when government agent and future spymaster Francis Walsingham began to investigate an assassination plot against the Queen planned in concert with a Spanish invasion. Over the following years, Walsingham built up England’s first secret service, using a number of agents, including his own nephew, Thomas Walsingham. In time, Marlowe would become friends with that same Thomas, and Thomas Walsingham would become both Marlowe’s literary patron and the long-time employer of Marlowe’s eventual killer, Ingraham (or Ingram) Frizer. The Massacre at Paris – The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre Marlowe would have noticed in 1572 at about the age of eight when Canterbury filled up with refuges after Catholic mobs massacred Protestants in France. All Europe was astounded at the bloody massacre of Christians by fellow Christians – over Christianity!

Marlowe’s city of Canterbury became a destination for French Protestant (Huguenot) refugees.[ 5 ] Francis Walsingham certainly noticed because he was there – in Paris – as Ambassador during the riots, watching his own house fill with refugees. He barely escaped back to England himself. He had already been one of the approximately eight hundred Protestants who had been forced to flee England for Europe back during Roman Catholic Mary’s reign. That’s how he had ended up studying for his law degree in Padua. Thomas was there, in Paris, too – working for his cousin Francis[ 6 ] as usual. Alongside Thomas was the poet Thomas Watson who would later also come to be a friend and mentor of Marlowe. Years later this Thomas would kill William Bradley when he came across Christopher Marlowe fighting him in the streets of Shoreditch. Protecting the Queen by Eliminating Mary In 1583, Walsingham uncovered a Roman Catholic plot (the Throckmorton Plot) to murder Elizabeth. Financed by the Spanish, an invasion led by the French Henry I, Duke of Guise coincident with a local Catholic uprising was intended to put Mary on the throne.

The state had to remove some of the incentive for assassinating the Queen. In 1584, Elizabeth authorized the “Bond of Association” which asserted that anyone in the line of succession to her throne would be executed if they stood to benefit by any plot against her, whether they were directly involved in it or not. …And Her Friends, Too In 1585 Parliament followed up with the “Act of Association” that allowed for the execution of anyone else who stood to benefit from a plot against the life of the Queen. Of course these acts were directed at Mary, who since 1568 had been in the custody of the Queen, and at her supporters. To protect the crown, a pretext had been found to justify the execution of Mary, and all that was now needed was to find evidence of Mary’s sedition. Francis Walsingham, head of Elizabeth’s secret service, set out to find that evidence. Babington Plot In 1585 (Marlowe would have been twenty-one) Walsingham infiltrated a network plotting to assassinate Elizabeth and rescue Mary. Walsingham intercepted communications carried by double agent Gilbert Gifford to Mary in her close confinement.

Using evidence partly forged by one of Walsingham’s men, the government accused Mary of treason, and she was executed. Curiously, Robert Poley, a Walsingham spy who was instrumental in uncovering what became known as the Babington plot, was one of Marlowe’s three sole companions on the day he was murdered. Gilbert Gifford, a Catholic, acting as a double agent for Sir Francis Walsingham carried communications to Mary.[ 7 ]) Fourteen Babington co-conspirators were found guilty of treason, and the first of them were hanged until almost dead. Then their intestines were cut out and shown to them as they died. Their bodies were cut into sections and distributed about the city for exhibition. Although this was so upsetting for the gathered crowd that the remainder were allowed to die on the noose before being disemboweled, this was the brutal treatment that traitors could expect, and a vivid demonstration of the dangers of dissent in Elizabethan England. With the death of Mary the Roman Catholic threat did not disappear.

It went underground and retreated to Europe into English Roman Catholic enclaves like Douai and Rheims, France where the English College provided a Catholic seminary for English Catholic priests, many of whom destined to infiltrate back to England’s shore and martyrdom. Marlowe Recruited at Cambridge? By this time, Marlowe was a young man at Cambridge – twenty-two in 1586, and starting work on his master’s degree. It has been speculated that Marlowe might have been recruited into the Secret Service by Walsingham at Cambridge. Cambridge was Walsingham’s old school, and the long-time Chancellor of Cambridge was his political colleague William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, who inherited Walsingham’s position as Lord Privy Seal in 1590, and had been (what we now call) Secretary of State before Walsingham. If not Walsingham directly, it might have been Nicholas Faunt, in the employ of Walsingham. In truth, we don’t know the extent of Marlowe’s involvement in the secret service, if any, but it seems like most of his recorded acquaintances had ties to Walsingham’s service.

Whitgift Since 1583 there had been a new leader of the Church of England, an adamantly anti-Puritan Archbishop of Canterbury (Marlowe’s home town) named John Whitgift, who decided about 1586[ 8 ] that to control the Puritan influence he had to control the printing presses; censor all books and pamphlets; and require printers to obtain licenses to print specific works.[ 9 ] Censorship Subsequently working as a playwright in London Marlowe was limited by censorship laws controlling his work and also by local controls over the operation of theatres revolving around a variety of justifications such as morals and plague outbreaks. To get around London ordinances, the theatres moved to outlying areas such as Shoreditch. Martin Marprelate Defiant Puritans and others fought back against Whitgift with polemics directed at the Church, printed on secret, underground presses. A series of popular satirical works appeared in 1588-1589 written under the pseudonym of Martin Marprelate, and printed on the clandestine roaming press of John Penry.

At this time Marlowe would have been about twenty-four years of age, and a few years out of school. Whitgift and the Church were sensitive to the effect of such works on the mind of the people, and fought back against Marprelate by hiring writers from among the ranks of Marlowe’s fellow playwrights. None have been attributed to him, and we imagine his sympathies and interests lay elsewhere. Marlowe’s Religion Although nominally Church of England, Marlowe has had a reputation for uncertain religious attachments. This, despite his extended scholarship, which was given to boys headed for studies in divinity at Cambridge, and who would then proceed to Holy Orders (ordination). On the surface, his scholarship and training suggest at least an initial sincere personal religious interest. They say Christopher Marlowe’s master’s degree was held up because he was rumoured to have gone to Rheims to see about converting to Catholicism. However, there exists a letter directly from the Queen’s Privy Council (signed by Burghley, Walsingham and Whitgift among others) to Marlowe’s college at Cambridge, recommending that those rumours be ignored as Marlowe had done service to the nation.

This contributed to the romantic speculation that Marlowe was working for the government as a spy, but also provides evidence that even if Marlowe wasn’t a heretic, some thought him to be convincing enough for the role. Marlow was also accused of being “atheist,” to which, as an educated man and a free-thinker, he may well have been inclined, but the term was meant more as an insult, implying “godlessness” rather than a true lack of belief. His writings bear out his willingness to be critical of religion, and to give voice to the inner thoughts of others. Either way, insufficient-belief, wrong-belief, iconoclasm, or foolish tricksterism was pretty much the same thing to the Church of England because with the Queen as head, and divinely ordained, the church and the state were mutually dependent. If you didn’t follow the Church of England then you didn’t – couldn’t – accept the divine right and authority of the Queen, which was treasonous as well as heretical. Church and State Henry VIII had objected to religion (Rome) dictating to the state (himself), but the state still dictated religion to the nation.

In time, as the state became defined by the nation of people, the people would demand they both mind their own business, and the state would come to see the wisdom of leaving bigotry to the people. But in Marlowe’s time it was not the case. Religious tyranny forced people into false worship and hypocrisy. People were prevented from worshiping freely, from freedom of expression – but in Marlowe’s time, those beliefs could be truly dangerous. England would continue with her precarious via media well past Marlowe’s and Elizabeth’s lifetimes, until the negotiated settlement making William of Orange king in 1689 guaranteed the religious rights of most Protestants, rights which were eventually largely extended to Roman Catholics and others – with the exception of the British monarch, who to this day, as head of the Church of England, is ironically one person without the religious freedom to choose to be Roman Catholic. Footnotes Lady Jane Grey (1536/1537 – 1554), was briefly monarch of England in 1553.

[ ↩ ] With so many devout Christians, vying to be the best Christians they could be, you would have thought Christendom would be like paradise, but somehow it was all killings and imprisonment and torture – and Faust was the Satanic one? “Kill thy neighbour who is unlike thyself” seems to be a long-lost commandment. [ ↩ ] SparkNotes: Queen Elizabeth I: Important Terms, People, and Events Important Terms, People, and Events Important Terms, People, and Events → Timeline Terms Blank Verse - · Non-rhyming verse taking the form of iambic pentameter and used extensively in Elizabethan drama by playwrights like Marlowe and Shakespeare. Coronation - · The ceremony by which someone is crowned king or queen Galleon - · A heavy, square-rigged, sail-driven vessel favored by the Spanish in the Elizabethan period. The Spanish Armada was comprised of galleons. Golden Hind - · Sir Francis Drake's ship, which he sailed around the world. Interdict - · A form of papal censure and condemnation. An interdict strips a person or community of most sacraments and the right to Christian burial.

Privy Council - · The private council of the English King or Queen. Today, the Privy Council exercises no real power, but in Elizabeth's era it had great control over national policy. Spanish Armada - · In 1588, Philip II of Spain sent this fleet to fetch his soldiers in the Netherlands and then invade England. Although it was supposed invincible, the Armada was defeated by the English navy. Tower of London - · This royal fortress and residence served as a jail for important political prisoners (Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots were both detained there). The tower has also guarded important items such as the Crown Jewels. People Duke de Alencon - The fourth son of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici and brother to the king of France (Francis II). He unsuccessfully courted Elizabeth. In 1576, his title changed to Duke of Anjou. Duke of Anjou - Known as Duke de Alencon until 1576, Anjou was the fourth son of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici and brother to the king of France (Francis II). He unsuccessfully courted Elizabeth.

Francis Bacon - Lawyer, Statesman, counselor to James I, early scientist and man of letters. Early in his career, Bacon's patron was the Earl of Essex. Ann Boleyn - Second wife of Henry VIII and Elizabeth's mother Lord Burleigh - Originally called Sir William Cecil, he was Elizabeth's chief Secretary of State until 1571, when she named him Lord Burleigh and replaced him with the more ruthless (albeit loyal) Francis Walsingham. Francis Drake - Sir Francis Drake was an English-backed pirate and later admiral who terrorized Spanish treasure galleons, circumnavigated the globe (1577–1580) and led the English fleet in crucial battles against the Spanish Armada (1588). Edward VI - Elizabeth's younger half-brother, he briefly ruled England from 1547 to 1553. Earl of Essex - Robert Devereaux (or Devereux), Earl of Essex, was one of Leicester's stepsons and became Elizabeth's favored companion, or favorite, towards the end of her life until a botched military intervention in Ireland destroyed his reputation.

Essex was put to death in 1601 after leading an attempted rebellion. Feria - A Spanish ambassador to Elizabeth's court Gregory XIII - Serving as pope from 1572 to 1585, Gregory urged the adoption of the calendar named in his honor (the Gregorian). Hapsburg - Powerful European Royal family, which exercised control in Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire during Elizabeth reign. The Spanish king Philip II was a Hapsburg. Christopher Hatton - One of Elizabeth's advisors, Hatton served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1587 to 1591. Henry VIII - Tudor King of England from 1509 to 1547. He began the English Reformation, had six wives over the course of his life, and was father to Elizabeth I, Edward VI and Mary I. Although possessed of the bad habit of killing off those wives who did not bear male heirs, he was beloved by the people for his strength and dynamism. James I - First Stuart King of England and successor to Elizabeth, James I ruled from 1603 to 1625.

Earl of Leicester - The title given to Sir Robert Dudley by Elizabeth in 1564. Serving as Master of the Horse and also in some military leadership positions, Leicester was the Queen's close friend and probably her lover. When he died in 1588, Elizabeth shut herself in her room until Lord Burleigh bashed open the door. Christopher Marlowe - Poet and dramatist who preceded and competed with Shakespeare. An early pioneer of blank verse. Mary I - Mary Tudor, also known as "Bloody Mary" for her persecution of non- Catholics, was Elizabeth's older half-sister, and ruled England from 1553 to her death in 1558. A fervent Catholic, she was married to the future Philip II of Spain. Mary of Guise - Mother of Mary Queen of Scots, she served as Queen Regent in Scotland and brought French forces into Scotland to fight the Protestants there. Mary Queen of Scots - Also known as Mary Stuart, she was the Catholic Queen of Scotland (1542–1567) and had her eyes set on the throne of England. She was ultimately beheaded in 1587.

Her son, James I, succeeded Elizabeth. Philip II - Hapsburg King of Spain from 1556 to 1598, this defender of Catholicism had trouble suppressing Protestants in the Netherlands; the English navy destroyed his supposedly invincible Spanish Armada in 1588. Pius V - Pope from 1566 to 1572, Pius tirelessly (and harshly) persecuted and encouraged the persecution of Protestants throughout Europe. Plantagenet - The ruling family in England from 1154 to 1485 Walter Raleigh - This English writer and adventurer delighted Elizabeth but was put to death by her successor, James I. Simon Renaud - Spanish ambassador to England William Shakespeare - Elizabethan playwright and poet who later developed the reputation as the greatest writer of all time Edmund Spenser - English poet of the Elizabethan period, famous for his lengthy allegorical poem The Faerie Queene . Stuarts - The royal family that succeeded the Tudors. Members included James I and Mary Queen of Scots. Tudor - The ruling family of England from 1485 to 1603.

Following the Plantagenets and preceding the Stuarts, the Tudor line included Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth the Great (Elizabeth I). Francis Walsingham - Elizabeth's chief secretary of state from 1573 to 1590, replacing Burleigh. Walsingham was a devout Protestant and a cunning spymaster. William the Silent - A protestant, William the Silent fought for an independent Netherlands during the Elizabethan era. Events Act for the Preservation of the Queen's Safety - This 1585 policy was intended to quash conspiracies against the Queen, and was enacted in response to recent plots like the Duke de Guise Plot and the earlier Ridolfi Plot. Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity - These two acts, ratified together, were meant to settle religious conflicts: while the Act of Supremacy made Elizabeth the "Supreme Governor" of the Church, with the authority to make absolute decisions affecting religious practices, the Act of Uniformity restored, with some amendments, the Protestant Prayer Book that Mary I had banned. Babington Plot - Anthony Babington led this 1586 plot to overthrow Elizabeth and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.

Mary was thrown into the Tower of London and subsequently executed for involvement in this plot, which Walsingham cleverly detected and exposed. Bond of Association - A 1584 decree by which Parliament forced all English men to sign a pledge that, in the event of Elizabeth's assassination, they would hunt down the culprit. Cadiz - This was the site of a devastating 1587 raid on the Spanish Armada, led by Sir Francis Drake; the name now also refers to the battle itself. Duke de Guise Plot - A 1582 Catholic plot on Elizabeth's life Ridolfi Plot - A 1570 to 1571 plot led by an Italian conspirator (Roberto di Ridolfi) to overthrow Elizabeth and install Mary Queen of Scots on the throne of England. The plot involved assassinating Elizabeth and using the Spanish Army to conquer the countryside. Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger's Rebellion - In 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt undertook a plot against then-queen Mary I; he intended to overthrow Mary's government and take control for himself, after marrying Elizabeth and thus legitimating his rule.

When the plot was detected, Mary suspected Elizabeth of complicity and imprisoned her in the Tower of London. BBC - History - Elizabeth's Spy Network Elizabeth's Spy Network By Alexandra Briscoe Last updated 2011-02-17 As a Protestant Queen, Elizabeth was forced to live with the threat of assassination from Catholics throughout her reign. But there was an army of men working in secret to protect the Queen. These were her spies, her secret service, and they were overseen by the most ruthless spy master of them all: Francis Walsingham. On this page Print this page The Queen in danger The long and successful reign of Elizabeth I proved that a woman could be as effective and popular a monarch as any King. But there existed around the Queen a critical support structure which was made up almost exclusively of men. This was her network of spies supervised by Walsingham, one of Elizabeth's most loyal ministers, and their aim was to safeguard the life of the Queen. The efficiency of this network unearthed a series of plots to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. It is a testament to the success of this secret service that Elizabeth died peacefully of old age and not at the hands of an assassin.

...the threat to her life was growing ever more serious. In the early years of her reign William Cecil (later Lord Burghley) had been overseeing the gathering of intelligence, but once Mary Queen of Scots arrived on English soil things moved up a gear. She was a magnet for conspiracy, the perfect focus for discontented Catholics who refused to conform to Elizabeth's Protestant faith. A number of plots came to light, such as the Northern Uprising of 1569 and the Ridolfi Plot two years later, which centred on rescuing Mary. So far, the plots had been uncovered in time and disaster had been averted. But the threat to her life was growing ever more serious. Realising the scale of the task ahead he called upon the man who was to become known as Elizabeth's spy master, Francis Walsingham. Top Walsingham and his spies Walsingham had studied as a lawyer and was intelligent, serious and disciplined. He held strong Protestant beliefs, and had gone to live abroad during the reign of the Catholic Mary I. But when Protestantism was re-established under Elizabeth I, he returned to England and became Secretary of State in 1568.

Quick-witted and ruthless, he was soon playing a critical role in intelligence-gathering operations. Without the other commitments which had taken up much of Cecil's time, Walsingham could devote himself to overseeing Elizabeth's secret service. This he did with zeal. He was strict, almost Puritan in his religious beliefs, and passionate about protecting the country from Catholic threat. Spies were posted to live abroad who could supply him with intelligence on the politics and attitudes of Catholic countries towards England. This information enabled Walsingham to piece together, for example, the policy of the Pope towards Elizabeth. Armed also with information from spies based in this country, Walsingham could trace lines of communication between Catholics here and abroad, and keep track of any plots. The world of a spy was not, however, one of glamour and intrigue. The world of a spy was not, however, one of glamour and intrigue. Many spies were ambitious undergraduates recruited from Oxford and Cambridge who saw this as a route to fame and fortune. But the reality was quite different. Long journeys, low pay and the logistical difficulties of delivering information meant that, unless involved in a high-profile success, the work of a spy was often thankless and mundane.

More challenging was the area of intelligence-gathering. This kind of work included travelling abroad to gather information on national security. Top Coded letters Intelligence work also involved learning how to break the different codes used by plotters in their correspondence. Often, letters of the alphabet were shuffled in a certain sequence and, once the key was worked out, the message could be read and understood. Alternatively individual letters could be substituted with numbers, symbols or signs of the zodiac. But spies had to learn not only how to decipher code but also how to write it themselves. This was frustrating and time-consuming work, paid off only by the satisfaction of finally cracking a difficult code. ...spies had to learn not only how to decipher code but also how to write it themselves. Some codes could only be understood by placing a sheet of paper punched with holes over the top so that just the relevant letters making up the message could be read. Success therefore depended on calculating the exact sequence of thousands of holes. Also popular was the practice of conveying information in invisible ink. Written in milk or lemon juice, the secret message could be read as the page was warmed over a candle and the letters appeared.

Innocent text in normal ink was often written alongside the hidden message in order to throw a spy off the scent. Walsingham knew that this work was critical to his success, and established a spy school to provide formal training for recruits. The security of the country was at stake, after all. Mistakes were unthinkable. Top The Babington plot For reasons of security Mary, Queen of Scots was regularly moved from one residence to another. She still had her entourage and spent her days sewing, reading or hunting, but in reality Mary was a prisoner. She did not, however, realise the level of scrutiny she was under. Walsingham loathed Mary and everything she stood for, and vowed to bring her down. It was to take him almost 20 years. But when he discovered in 1586 that she was corresponding with a group of Catholics led by the young Anthony Babington, he seized his chance. For the first stage of his plan, Walsingham used a spy named Gifford to act as a double agent. Gifford persuaded the local brewer to encourage Mary to use him as a secret means of communicating with the outside world.

By establishing a system whereby Mary's personal letters were carried in and out of Chartley (her current residence) hidden in a beer barrel, Walsingham was able to intercept and decode her correspondence. The relatively simple code used by Mary was quickly deciphered, and translations were provided for Elizabeth. These letters were then resealed and sent on to their destination or delivered to Mary in prison. And so the plot progressed. Walsingham could now move in for the kill. Walsingham, meanwhile, was biding his time. Luckily for him, Babington and his friends were enthusiastic but inexperienced plotters and were happy to discuss their plans in public. It was therefore not difficult for the authorities to keep track of their movements. Having outlined his plans to Mary, Babington now tried to secure her participation in the plot. This was the moment Walsingham had been waiting for. When the vital letter from Mary asking for details was intercepted, a postscript was forged in her hand asking for the identities of the plotters. The names were duly supplied, and their fate was sealed. Mary's involvement in the plot had been proven, and a gallows was drawn on the page by the decoding expert. Walsingham could now move in for the kill.

By now Babington and the others, realising something was wrong, had gone into hiding. But Walsingham was one step ahead and they were quickly captured and tried. Elizabeth, keen to signal a warning against further plots, ordered that their executions be public and brutal. The men were hung, drawn and quartered. Top Mary's downfall Mary realised that she had fallen into the trap set by Walsingham, and launched a personal attack on him during her trial. 'Spies are men of doubtful credit,' she said, 'who make a show of one thing and speak another.' But there was to be no escape and, found guilty of treason, Mary was sentenced to death. Mary realised that she had fallen into the trap set by Walsingham... The execution took place on 8 February 1587 in the Great Hall at Fotheringhay, but even now events did not go according to plan. The executioner, understandably nervous, missed his aim and it took three blows of his axe to sever her head. Horrified onlookers said that, for fifteen minutes afterwards, her lips continued to move in silent prayer. With Mary dead, Walsingham's life work was now complete and he died just three years later.

Throughout Elizabeth's reign he had done more than anyone else to ensure her personal safety. But the Queen, though appreciative of his actions, was never close to Walsingham in the way that she was to Cecil or Leicester. She distrusted his Puritan leanings and was wary of his manner and intellect. Reluctant as always to spend money, the Queen had never provided proper funding for his work. Walsingham, devoted to the Queen and determined to protect the country's Protestant faith, had put most of his own money into making sure his spy network was a success. He left as his legacy the most advanced and efficient secret service of its time. Find out more Books Invisible Power: The Elizabethan Secret Services 1570 - 1603 by Alan Haynes (Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd, 1992) On The Trail of Mary Queen of Scots by J.

Keith Cheetham (Luath Press Ltd, 1999) The English Captivity of Mary Queen of Scots by Patrick Collinson (Sheffield History Pamphlets, 1987) Mary Queen of Scots by Rosalind K Marshall (HMSO, 1991) Elizabeth the Queen by Alison Weir (Pimlico, 1999) The Virgin Queen by Christopher Hibbert (Viking, 1990) The Word of a Prince by Maria Perry (The Boydell Press, 1990) Top About the author Alexandra Briscoe has a background in documentary programme-making. She is Assistant Producer on Simon Schama's A History of Britain, specialising in the reign of Elizabeth I for the programme entitled The Body of the Queen.

Question: The 'Ridolfi Plot' was a Roman Catholic plot to kill which English monarch?
Answer: ELIZABETH I